The strongest of partners

Raytheon Australia’s Michael Ward on the relationship between industry and Defence

The Australian defence industry has become "fundamental" to security, Michael Ward, Raytheon Australia’s managing director, told attendees at the 2016 Australian Defence Magazine Congress.

“Defence industry is no longer just an arms-length provider of commodity goods and services, but rather one of the fundamental elements of the national security infrastructure,” Ward told defence industry leaders, the Minister of Defence, Australian Defence Force representatives and other government officials.

Ward said two decades of development in defence policy and industry investment in Australia have led to a true partnership between government and industry. Those factors have placed industry in a strategic role in the future of Australia’s defence capability.

“The recognition of defence industry as a fundamental input to capability in the First Principles Review was a vitally important statement on behalf of the government and Defence,” Ward said.

Industry has a responsibility to continue this evolution, according to Ward. "In my view, the next big step in capability for the ADF will be what some have called the 'Integrated Force,’” he said. “This is a concept based on not just an aggregate of impressive products connected by personnel, but a truly integrated system of systems that connects individual capabilities and delivers a powerful force multiplier for the ADF.”

Industry will play a vital role in helping Defence to achieve an ‘Integrated Force,’” Ward said, calling upon industry to continue building upon its strategic partnership with Defence.

“This is the challenge for industry over the next decade,” he said, “to ensure it has the enduring, specialist, sovereign industry capabilities necessary to support Defence as it acts in Australia’s evolving national security interests."